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Character Role Analysis

President Merkin Muffley and General Buck Turgidson

Merkin and Buck have two totally different ideas of how to deal with the crisis. The President is all about diplomacy, and is even willing to have American planes shot down to avoid millions dying because of a nuclear strike. The General, on the other hand, suggests that they fire everything they have at the Soviets. Zillions of Russians will die, sure, but America will be mostly spared. (He doesn't know about the Doomsday Machine yet.) These guys represent factions in the government—the doves and the hawks—who have hugely different perspectives on how aggressively military force should be used in the country's foreign policy.